Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-08-16
: TWICE BURIED.
Written for this paper.1

Sod was the name of the young girl who
stood bareheaded and barefooted by the foun-
tain in the middle of the little village In Bull
garia, and Yeorgio was the name of the
sturdy peasant who stood beside her as she
let the spai King water drop down into the
pitcher that was already running over, and
she listened to him with bent head and flushed
checks, unmindful of the young couples who
stood around her, for in this country all the
counting between the young people is carried
on about the public fountains, where the
young girls go at shutdown to draw water.
Sofia listened as Yeorgio talked, with shy
smile upon her face and a rich red showing
through the brown of her cheeks and a
LEAN of heaven in her great black eyes.
The heavy braids Of her hair were twined
with little ornaments that made rleasant
tinklng as her head trembled, and the en-
broidered, homespun linen kerchief that was
folded across her breast heaved with happy
heart throbs, and yet what future was
spread before this happy madenl
"Soia," said the young man, 'my time will
be up now III three months, and nv master
will give me sheep and lamb and little
lean pig, and we can have Father Dimitri's
cottage up by the hill and the three acres of
ground. We can live there and till the
ground and take care of Father Dimitri for
the rent. He will not be much trouble. will
ne, little Sofaa"
sand have got the little brindle COW,
Yeorgo, for my portion, and wool enough for
4 bed, and have my mothers pots and pans
and copper kettles, you know. will not come
to You quite empty handed, Yeorgio, for
nave two golden Ira, too, that sold my EN-
broidery for, and we can get many things
with those, cannot we? An old man brings
a blessing to a firesiie they say, and am
sure love good old Father Dimitri, who has
no one to love him or care for him since they
took away his daughters"
$50 you will come, little Sofia? Shall we
be married st. Georges dayi You know lie
Is nv patron"
ayes, if you WISH" answered she sweetly
and gravely, with great rush of joy to her
pure and handsome dark face, and she held
out her hand, which her peasant lover took
in his and lifted to his lips, and then un-
FLASHED, In the presence OF all tue young girls
md young men around the fountain, he
leaned down and kissed the sun burned fore
head lifted to his first kiss, and they all knew
that these two We're betrothed.
Then Sofia took her pitcher, and together
the farm where Sofia had lived and worked
ever since her mother hal died The father
had been drafted into the contingent of farm
laborers who are forced to go every year to
Coustantinople to reap the grain upon the
sutan's farms, and from the cruel hardships
of that lot he never recovered, but died there
like 80 many of his unfortunate countrymen,
and was buried like dog.
The mofher had Str,I 90 led &c host ha
working at the farms and villages until her
strength was spent, and she, too, died, leav-
ing SOFIA TO the people with whom she died.
sofia had since then herded the sheep and
goats, wove and spun and worked in tie
house by turns, and had always been an
honest, simple, upright girl. and in that
small world, where caste was unknown, the
poor orphan was as well regarded as those
whose parents were still living and well off.
She mad known Ieorgio ever since she could
remember, and he was always good to her,
end he, too, was an orphan, and so there was
another bond of sympathy between them.
Eeorgio was as poor as she, his life having
been passed working for small farmer
whose possessions were few, and who had
lone all that could be expected of him in Civ
ing the youth tue sheep and lamb aud the lit
tie lean pig for his twelve years service.
Now the two poor orphans were about to
join their fortunes, or rather their lack of
fortune, and Ia ke the additional burden OF the
old man Dimitri, though, to be sure. they
We're to have the use of the house and land as
long as lie lived.
he house was a low stone and mud hut,
without windows and with ouly two rooms.
and with ground for the floor besides, but
" herever love dwells the house is q palace.
The two now walked along the grassy path
toward Sotia's home, talking quietly and
over their wedding, seriously as il
the step they proposed taking was simply a
purer and truer friendship aud union of in
terests, and one that was to last forever.
They did not indulge in rapturous words,